Auckland environmental and social activist Malcolm France has thrown his dreads into the ring for the Mount Albert By Election, standing on a "People Before Profit" ticket. Malcolm, an organiser for Save Happy Valley Coalition in Auckland, thinks that an alternative to the mainstream parties is badly needed in the city.

"Don't just vote for me- get active!" says Malcolm. "We're seeing an arrogant government literally bulldozing hundreds of Mt Albert and Waterview homes so they can build a useless motorway costing billions- all so we can get to the traffic jam quicker. I'll be standing on a platform of direct action and civil disobedience against this motorway, and arguing that the billions spent on it would be better spent on free and frequent public transport."

"There is no democracy in Auckland at the moment- the Government has not allowed Aucklanders decide how they want their city run. I believe in decentralising power into the hands of local communities, not giving party politicians more power. They want to privatise our publicly owned assets behind closed doors. We'll be marching on the Hikoi on May 25th against the Supercity, and for more local participatory democracy."

"Thousands of people who live in my area are on low wages, many on the basic minimum wage. As an active supporter of the Unite union, I'll be taking their Citizens Initiated referendum petition out to the people of Mt Albert, to increase the minimum wage first to $15 per hour NOW, and then in steps until it reaches two thirds the average wage."

"I don't care about parliamentary democracy- I care about building a grassroots movement that puts People Before Profits. That's why I'll be running a punk rock campaign to get up the noses of the Politrickers and support local people against motorways, miserly wages and the Man."

We are a group of people that realise real change is not going to come through the parliamentary system but through the grass roots struggle of the people.

While we understand the growth of the Greens as a political voice of people and the environment, they are not radical enough to make changes and we feel eventually like the Labour party and the unions they will get caught up in managing the system. That's what's happened in countries like Germany and Ireland.

It should be very clear by now that capitalist economic system that we live under doesn't work. It controls us not the other way around. It is a cycle of boom and bust and so very unstable. It allows those with money and power to rise to the top and control those underneath and so is very exploitative of people and the environment.

It is based on free market and competition. Competition forces diminishing returns and pits person against person with ethics, human rights and the environment suffering.Resources are running out, especially oil. Current food production methods are unsustainable. Yet our mainly privatised banking system which charges interest, forces growth which will come to a sudden stop in the near future.50 million people will lose their jobs this year alone because of the Global Crisis.

Capitalism helped erase feudalism but it has run its course in the western world, so has the form of democracy we have which supports it and its ruling class.

The current political and economic system is irreformable and it is time for a change. The longer we leave it the worse the crash. It is time to visit anti capitalist ideas on alternatives to both.

We are about that change.

Visit the attached websites and blogs to learn what socialism and anarchism is really about- not the public misconceptions or the corporatised media version or your state school version of it